It’s ironic that Weird Al Yankovic’s latest hit parody “Perform This Way” makes fun of Lady Gaga’s onstage wardrobe because at his show Thursday at Allentown’s Symphony Hall, Yankovic made nearly as many costume changes as la Gaga herself. Ditto for his hardworking back-up band.

From the wild black and red tiger striped suit he donned for one of his original songs to the plush peacock outfit for his Gaga spoof Yankovic’s two-plus hour show was as much about the visual jokes as the aural, and the overall effect was great fun.

At 51, Yankovic demonstrated amazing musical ability as well as stamina as he did kicks and pivots like Michael Jackson and climbed over the seats in the audience during a Prince homage, all the while singing in the distinctive style of each artist.

The show kicked off with “Polka Face” a polka medley from Yancovic’s new album “Alpocalypse,” that spoofs “Gaga’s “Poker Face” as well as 15 other songs.

Yankovic jammed on accordion and sang in widely diverse styles, while speeded-up versions of the original star’s videos played on a big screen. The extravaganza ended by channeling Lawrence Welk with a bubble machine spewing bubbles all through Symphony Hall.

In between songs the video screen showed snippets of AlTV “interviews” with stars, along with spoofs of classroom educational films and clips of every time Yankovic has been mentioned on TV from “The Simpson’s” to “Scoop Doo” to “Jeopardy.” The short intervals gave Yankovic and his band time to change costumes.

Many of the songs Yankovic performed were from “Alpocalypse,” including “TMZ,” a parody of “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift and “Party in the CIA,” “after Miley Cyrus’ “Party in The USA,” in which Yankovic and the entire band donned black spy suits.

An early highlight was “Smells Like Nirvana,’ a take off of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Yankovic wearing a shaggy blond Kurt Cobain wig sings incoherently, even forgetting the lyrics at one point, before literally drinking water and gargling through a line. It was hilarious.

Another original making fun of captains on Disney-style jungle cruise rides “Skipper Dan” was enhanced by Yankovic’s posturing in his pseudo-safari outfit with short pants and the creative animation on the video.

“Canadian Idiot,” a parody of “American Idiot” by Green Day, had fans singing along with the words and ended with an explosion of confetti and in his Prince-inspired original “Wanna B Ur Lover,” Yankovic came down into the audience to croon phrases like “You’d look like Venus De Milo if I just cut off your arms” and “my love for you is like diarrhea, I just can’t hold it in,” to female fans.

Also from “Alpocalypse” was one of the funniest spoofs – an original song by Yankovic called “Craigslist” is done in the style of the Doors and Yankovic dressed in a Jim Morrison wig, tight black leather and chain belt gyrated around the stage shooting bedroom-eye looks at the audience as he sang.

He then launched into one of the longest sustained medleys I’ve ever heard that included both the old and the new. Starting with “Beverly Hills,” the ode to Jed Clampett to the tune of “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits; it went into “Another Tattoo,” a parody of “Nothin' On You” by B.o.B, featuring Bruno Mars and included spoofs of the Backstreet Boys, Huey Lewis, the Kinks and the Knack.

The medley also included a simple but very funny gag in which Yankovic played accordion while an assistant held a harmonic to his mouth for the breaks in “Ode to a Superhero,” his spiderman take on Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.”

Yankovic also sent up rock concert conventions with the “requisite drum solo” – one riff and the dueling guitarists done with guitar and, of course, accordion.

Other crowd-pleasers were “Amish Paradise” a parody of “Gangsta's Paradise” by Coolio with Yankovic in beard and broad-brimmed Amish hat and the hit “White and Nerdy,” a riff on “Ridin'“ by Chamillionaire, in which Yankovic, wearing chains and a hoodie, rode on stage on a Segway while his band donned skinny ties, pocket protectors and black eyeglasses.

Yankovic ended with a hilarious “Fat,” a spoof of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” complete with a fat suit (that even gave the slim Yankovic multiple chins.)

For the encore the audience was treated to Star Wars extravaganza that featured a stage filled with stormtroopers, Darth Vader and even a seven-foot-tall Chewbacca. Yankovic clad like Obi-Wan Kenobi sang “The Saga Begins,” to the tune of “American Pie” by Don McLean in which he detaisl the entire plot “Star Wars:The Phantom Menace.” In keeping with the theme, Yankovic ended with a rousing sing-along of “Yoda” a parody of the Kinks “Lola” that immortalizes the gnome-like character from “The Empire Strikes Back.”

JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.